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London Plus Railpass: Worth it?

Someone suggested to me to take a look at the London Plus Railpass as it now includes travel to Bath and coupons for the Gatwick Express.

I'm planning a trip for January and I will be in London for 2 weeks. The pass is valid for 8 days so I would make sure that my 2 day trips (I want to do Bath and Cambridge) are within that time frame. From the National Rail website, I found fares of 20GBP for Bath and 25GBP for Cambridge, traveling at the cheapest times. So that's about 90-100$ of rail tickets if bought in advance (I understand it can get a lot more expensive if bought the same day at the rail station).

I was planning on taking the Southern Rail from Gatwick for about 40$ roundtrip. Now I could take the Gatwick Express instead (even faster) although it's not totally clear if I can use those outside of the 8 days when the pass is valid. If anyone knows, that would be useful (I'll email the RS people to make sure anyways...)

The pass is 145$ + shipping vs about 140$ for rail&transportation from airport.

What are your thoughts on this? I think it might give me a peace of mind to know that I won't have to wait in line for tickets and that I'm not stuck with a certain travel time. I know that if I buy with Rick Steves, I also get a discount of the travel store, which would be good since I need a new suitcase.

Posted by
445 posts

I can't answer your specific questions but I do know that train fares in the UK go up every January! This is a fact to keep in mind while planning.

Posted by
8700 posts

You've done your homework well! Since last-minute tickets can be very expensive and since you'd like the flexibility offered by a pass, in this case it looks like the London Plus pass would be a good choice even though your total price (with shipping) will be a little more than the total for Southern trains plus advance booking for Bath and Cambridge. And you'll get a discount at the RS travel store on that new bag. What a deal!

Posted by
313 posts

Vanessa, I've been pondering the same question and haven't made up my mind yet, but I do know that the airport express vouchers have to be used within the 8 day travel period.

Rick's Eurail guide says, "Includes vouchers to cover two trips on the Heathrow, Stansted, or Gatwick Express, separate from your counted travel days, but within the validity period of the pass.

Hope that helps with your decision. I have to actually crunch the numbers like you've done to make up my mind.

Posted by
643 posts

The vouchers are separate coupons, you can use them independantly of the london plus pass.